Exploration of the Role of Emotional Expression of Treatment-resistant Schizophrenia Patients Having Followed Virtual Reality Therapy: a Content Analysis

Overview

Journal BMC Psychiatry

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2023 Jun 12

PMID 37308864

Authors

Alexandre Hudon

Veronica Lammatteo

Sophie Rodrigues-Coutlee

Laura Dellazizzo

Sabrina Giguere

Kingsada Phraxayavong

Stephane Potvin

Alexandre Dumais

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Emotional responses are an important component of psychotherapeutic processes. Avatar therapy (AT) is a virtual reality-based therapy currently being developed and studied for patients suffering from treatment resistant schizophrenia. Considering the importance of identifying emotions in therapeutical processes and their impact on the therapeutic outcome, an exploration of such emotions is needed.

Methods: The aim of this study is to identify the underlying emotions at the core of the patient-Avatar interaction during AT by content analysis of immersive sessions transcripts and audio recordings. A content analysis of AT transcripts and audio recordings using iterative categorization was conducted for 16 patients suffering from TRS who underwent AT between 2017 and 2022 (128 transcripts and 128 audio recordings). An iterative categorization technique was conducted to identify the different emotions expressed by the patient and the Avatar during the immersive sessions.

Results: The following emotions were identified in this study: Anger, Contempt/ Disgust, Fear, Sadness, Shame/ Embarrassment, Interest, Surprise, Joy and Neutral. Patients expressed mostly neutral, joy and anger emotions whereas the Avatar expressed predominantly interest, disgust/contempt, and neutral emotions.

Conclusions: This study portrays a first qualitative insight on the emotions that are expressed in AT and serves as a steppingstone for further investigation in the role of emotions in the therapeutic outcomes of AT.

Citing Articles

The Relationship between Sense of Presence, Emotional Response, and Clinical Outcomes in Virtual Reality-Based Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia: An Exploratory Correlational Study.

Augustin E, Beaudoin M, Giguere S, Ziady H, Phraxayavong K, Dumais A J Pers Med. 2024; 14(6).

PMID: 38929835 PMC: 11204393. DOI: 10.3390/jpm14060614.

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